Subway terror suspect from Britain pleads not guilty

two line key here

Associated Press

Published 10:53 pm, Monday, January 7, 2013

Photo: Elizabeth Williams

Image 1of/1

Caption

Close

Image 1 of 1

Abid Naseer, second from left, is arraigned in Brooklyn Federal Court where he pleaded not guilty through his attorney Steven Brounstein, center, to terrorism charges in an alleged al-Qaida plot against the New York City subways, Monday, Jan. 7, 2013, in New York. Naseer was extradited last week from Britain. Second from right is Assistant U.S. Attorney Zainab Ahmad. (AP Photo/Elizabeth Williams) less

Abid Naseer, second from left, is arraigned in Brooklyn Federal Court where he pleaded not guilty through his attorney Steven Brounstein, center, to terrorism charges in an alleged al-Qaida plot against the New ... more

Photo: Elizabeth Williams

Subway terror suspect from Britain pleads not guilty

1 / 1

Back to Gallery

NEW YORK — A man who initially beat terror charges in the United Kingdom pleaded not guilty on Monday in a U.S. case linking him to a failed al-Qaida plot against the city's subway system.

Abid Naseer was extradited from Britain late last week. He entered the plea in federal court in Brooklyn through his attorney, Steven Brounstein. The lawyer declined to comment outside court.

The judge ordered Naseer held without bail until his next court date, on March 7.

Prosecutors aim to prove that Naseer collected bomb ingredients, conducted reconnaissance and was in frequent contact with other al-Qaida operatives. If convicted, Naseer, 26, could face up to life in prison.

Naseer was one of 12 people arrested in a counterterrorism operation in Britain in April 2009, but all were subsequently released without charges. They were ordered to leave the country, but Naseer avoided being deported to Pakistan after a judge ruled it was likely he would be mistreated if he were sent home.

Authorities rearrested Naseer in July 2010 at the request of prosecutors in Brooklyn, where a federal indictment named him as a co-defendant with Adis Medunjanin, a U.S. citizen from Bosnia. The prosecutors also alleged he was part of a broader terror campaign that would have targeted Britain and Norway.

U.S. authorities allege Medunjanin and two friends from Flushing High School in Queens — Najibullah Zazi and Zarein Ahmedzay — traveled to Pakistan in 2008 to seek terror training from al-Qaida.

Zazi, an airport van driver from Colorado, admitted in a guilty plea that once back from Pakistan he tested peroxide-based explosive materials in a makeshift lab in Denver in fall 2009 before traveling by car to New York to carry out the scheme. The men abandoned the plot after they learned they were being watched by investigators.